Bayard Taylor
|birth_place = Chester County, Pennsylvania, U.S. |death_date = December |death_place = Germany |signature = }} James Bayard Taylor (January 11, 1825 - December 19, 1878) was an American poet, literary critic, translator, and travel author. Life Overview Taylor, born in Pennsylvania of Quaker descent, began to write by the time he was 12. Apprenticed to a printer, he found the work uncongenial and, purchasing his indentures, went to Europe on a walking tour; thereafter he was a constant and enterprising traveler. After his return from Europe he edited a paper, got on the staff of the New York Tribune, and published several books of travel and poetry, among which are Views Afoot (1846), an account of his travels in Europe, and El Dorado (1850), which described the Californian gold-fields. After some experience and some disappointments in the diplomatic sphere, he settled down to novel-writing, his initial venture in which, Hannah Thurston (1863), was very successful, and was followed by John Godfrey's Fortunes (1864), partly autobiographical, and The Story of Kenneth (1866). His poetic works include Poems of the Orient (1854), Poet's Journal (1862), Masque of the Gods (1872), Lars (1873), The Prophet (1874), a tragedy, Prince Deucalion, and Home Pastorals (1875). In 1878 he was appointed to the German Embassy, and died in Berlin in the following year. His translation of Goethe's Faust is perhaps his best work. He was a man of untiring energy and great ability and versatility, but tried too many avenues to fame to advance very far in any of them.John William Cousin, "Taylor, Bayard," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 371. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 12, 2018. Life Taylor was born at Kennett Square in Chester co., Pennsylvania, on January 11, 1825. He was the 4th son, the 1st to live to maturity, of the Quaker couple, Rebecca (Way) and Joseph Taylor.Wermuth, Paul Charles. Bayard Taylor. Twayne Publishers, 1973: 13. ISBN 0-8057-0718-2 The son of a well-to-do farmer, he received his early instruction in an academy at West Chester, and later at Unionville. At the age of 17 he was apprenticed to a printer in West Chester.Britannica 1911, 26, 467. Career Taylor's interest in poetry was coached by critic and editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold, who encouraged him to write a volume of poetry. Published at Philadelphia in 1844, Ximena; or, The battle of the Sierra Morena; and other poems was dedicated to Griswold.Bayless, Joy. Rufus Wilmot Griswold: Poe's literary executor. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1943. 128. The little volume brought its author a little cash; and indirectly it did him better service as the means of his introduction to the New York Tribune. With the money thus obtained, and with an advance made to him on account of some journalistic work to be done in Europe, "J.B. Taylor' (as he had up to this time signed himself, though he bore no other Christian name than Bayard) set sail for the East. The young poet spent a happy time roaming through certain districts of England, France, Germany and Italy; that he was a born traveler is evident from the fact that this pedestrian tour of almost 2 years cost him only £100. The graphic accounts which he sent from Europe to the Tribune, the Saturday Evening Post, and the United States Gazette were so highly appreciated that on Taylor's return to America he was advised to throw his articles into book form. In 1846, accordingly, appeared his Views Afoot; or, Europe seen with knapsack and staff (2 volumes, New York). This pleasant book had considerable popularity, and its author now found himself a recognized man of letters. He was asked to serve as an editorial assistant for Graham's Magazine for a few months in 1848.Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson. The Literary History of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1906: 273. ISBN 1-932109-45-5. The same year, Horace Greeley, then editor of the Tribune, placed Taylor on the Tribune staff thus securing him a certain if a moderate income. In 1849 Taylor married his 1st wife, Mary (Agnew), who died in 1850 of tuberculosis."Cedarcroft: Bayard Taylor House", Living Places Website, with excerpt from 1971 nomination to National Register of Historic Places, accessed 30 May 2011 His next journey, made when the gold-fever was at its height, was to California, as correspondent for the Tribune; from this expedition he returned by way of Mexico, and, seeing his opportunity, published a highly successful book of travels, entitled El Dorado; or, Adventures in the path of empire (2 vols., New York, 1850). 10,000 copies were said to have been sold in America, and 30,000 Great Britain, within a fortnight from the date of issue. Taylor always considered himself native to the East, and it was with great delight that in 1851 he found himself on the banks of the Nile. He ascended as far as 12° 30' N., and stored his memory with countless sights and delights, to many of which he afterwards gave expression in metrical form. From England, towards the end of 1852, he sailed for Calcutta, and then to China, where he joined the expedition of Commodore Perry to Japan. The results of these journeys (besides his poetical memorials) were A Journey to Central Africa; or, Life and landscapes from Egypt to the negro kingdoms of the White Nile (New York, 1854); The Lands of the Saracen; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily and Spain (1854); and A Visit to India, China and Japan in the Year 1853 (1855). On Taylor's return on December 20, 1853, from these various journeyings he entered, with marked success, upon the career of a public lecturer, delivering addresses in every town of importance from Maine to Wisconsin. After 2 years' experience of this lucrative profession, he again started on his travels, on this occasion for northern Europe, his special object being the study of Swedish life, language and literature. The most noteworthy result was the long narrative poem "Lars," but his “Swedish Letters ” to the Tribune were also republished, under the title Northern Travel: Summer and winter pictures (London, 1857). In October 1857 he married Maria (Hansen), the daughter of German astronomer Peter Hansen. Marie Hansen Taylor translated into German Bayard's Greece (Leipzig, 1858), Hannah Thurston (Hamburg, 1863), Story of Kennett (Gotha, 1868), Tales of Home (Berlin, 1879), Studies in German Literature (Leipzig, 1880), and notes to Faust, both parts (Leipzig, 1881). After her husband's death, she edited, with notes, his Dramatic Works (1880), and in the same year his Poems in a “Household Edition,” and brought together his Critical Essays and Literary Notes. In 1885 she prepared a school edition of Lars, with notes and a sketch of its author's life. The winter of 1857-1858 was spent in Greece. In 1859 Taylor once more traversed the whole extent of the western American gold region, the primary cause of the journey lying in an invitation to lecture at San Francisco. About 3 years later he entered the diplomatic service as secretary of legation at St Petersburg, and the following year (1863) became chargé d'affaires at the Russian capital. In 1864 he returned to the United States and resumed his active literary labors. In 1874 he, went to Iceland, to report for the Tribune the 1000th anniversary of the 1st settlement there. In June 1878 he was accredited United States minister at Berlin. Notwithstanding the resistless passion for travel which had always possessed him, Taylor was (when not actually en route) sedentary in his habits, especially in the later years of his life. His death occurred on December 19, only a few months after his arrival in Berlin. Writing Taylor's most ambitious productions in poetry — his Masque of the Gods (Boston, 1872), Prince Deukalion: A lyrical drama (Boston, 1878), The Picture of St John (Boston, 1866), Lars: A pastoral of Norway (Boston, 1873), and The Prophet: A tragedy (Boston, 1874) are marred by a ceaseless effort to overstrain his power. But he will be remembered by his poetic and excellent translation of Faust (2 volumes, Boston, 1870-1871) in the original meters. Taylor felt, in all truth, “the torment and the ecstasy of verse”; but, as a critical friend has written of him, “his nature was so ardent, so full-blooded, that slight and common sensations intoxicated him, and he estimated their effect, and his power to transmit it to others, beyond the true value.” He had, from the earliest period at which he began to compose, a distinct lyrical faculty: so keen indeed was his ear that he became too insistently haunted by the music of others, pre-eminently of Tennyson. But he had often a true and fine note of his own. His best short poems are The Metempsychosis of the Pine and the well-known Bedouin love-song. Miscellaneous In his critical essays Bayard Taylor had himself in no inconsiderable degree what he wrote of as “that pure poetic insight which is the vital spirit of criticism.” The most valuable of these prose dissertations are the Studies in German Literature (New York, 1879). In 1863 Hannah Thurston (New York), the 1st of his 4 novels, was published. This book had a moderate success, but neither in it nor in its successors did Taylor betray any special talent as a novelist. His late novel, Joseph and His Friend: A story of Pennsylvania (New York, 1870), recounts an intimate friendship between 2 men and is believed to be based on that between poets Fitz-Greene Halleck and Joseph Rodman Drake. Since the late 20th-century, it has been called America's earliest gay novel.Austen, Roger, Playing the Game: The Homosexual Novel in America, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1977 Taylor spoke at the dedication of a monument to Halleck in his native town, Guilford, Connecticut.Hallock, John W. M. The American Byron: Homosexuality and the fall of Fitz-Greene Halleck. University of Wisconsin Press, 2000: 151. ISBN 0-299-16804-2 Collected editions of Taylor's Poetical Works and his Dramatic Works were published at Boston in 1888; his Life and Letters (Boston, 2 volumes, 1884) were edited by his wife and Horace E. Scudder. Recognition The New York Times published Taylor's obituary on its front page, referring to him as "a great traveler, both on land and paper."Melton, Jeffrey Alan. Mark Twain, Travel Books, and Tourism: The Tide of a Great Popular Movement. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2002: 81. ISBN 0-8173-1160-2 Shortly after Taylor's death, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a memorial poem to him, at the urging of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Cedarcroft, Taylor's home from 1859 to 1874, which he built near Kennett Square, is preserved as a National Historic Landmark. The Bayard Taylor School was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. Publications Poetry * Ximena, or the Battle of the Sierra Morena, and other poems ''. Philadelphia: Herman Hooker, 1844) *Rhymes of Travel: Ballads and poems. New York: Putnam, 1849. *A Book of Romances, Lyrics, and Songs. Boston: Ticknor, Reed, & Fields, 1852. *The Poetical Works of Bayard Taylor'' (edited by M.T.). Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1854. *''Poems of the Orient. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1855. *Poems of Home and Travel. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1855. *The Poet's Journal. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1863. *The Poems of Bayard Taylor. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1865. **New York: AMS Press, 1970. *The Picture of St. John .'' Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1870. *''Home Pastorals, Ballads, & Lyrics. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1872. *Centennial Ode: The memorial freedom poem. Chicago: Belford, 1889. *Melodies of Verse. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1884. *Lars: A pastoral of Norway; and other poems. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1885. Plays *The Masque of the Gods. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1872. *The Prophet: A tragedy. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1874. *Prince Deukalion. Boston: Oughton, Osgood / Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1878, *The Dramatic Works of Bayard Taylor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1880. **New York: AMS Press, 1968. Fiction * ''Hanna Thurston: A story of American life. (3 volumes), New York: Putnam, 1863; London: Sampson Low, 1863. *''John Godfrey's Fortunes: Related by himself: A story of American life. New York: Putnam / London: Hurd & Houghton, 1864. * ''The Story of Kennett. New York: Putnam / London: Hurd & Houghton, 1866. * Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania. New York: Putnam, 1870. *''Beauty and the Beast: A story of Old Russia; and, Tales of home. New York: Putnam, 1872. *Echo Club, and other literary diversions. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1876. Non-fiction * ''Views Afoot, or Europe seen with Knapsack and Staff. New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1846. * El Dorado; or, Adventures in the Path of Empire. New York: Putnam; London: R. Bentley, 1850. **New York: Knopf, 1949. * A Journey to Central Africa; or, Life and Landscapes from Egypt to the Negro Kingdoms of the White Nile. New York: Putnam, 1854. * The Lands of the Saracen; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily and Spain. New York: Putnam, 1855; London: Sampson Low, 1855. * A visit to India, China, and Japan in the year 1853. New York: Putnam, 1855. *''Cyclopaedia of Modern Travel: A record of adventure, exploration and discovery, for the past fifty years: comprising narratives of the most distinguished travelers since the beginning of this century; prepared and arranged by Bayard Taylor. Cincinnati, O: Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co., 1856. * ''Northern Travel: Summer and winter pictures of Sweden, Denmark, and Lapland. New York: Putnam, 1857. *''Travels in Greece and Russia, with, an excursion to Crete. New York: Putnam, 1859. *At Home and Abroad: A sketch-book of life, scenery, and men. New York: Putnam, 1860. **First and second series. New York: Putnam, 1891. *Colorado: A summer trip. New York: Putnam, 1867. *By-ways of Europe. New York: Putnam, 1869. *Travels in Arabia. New York: Scribner, Armstrong, 1872. *Japan in our Day. . New York: Scribner, Armstrong, 1872. *Egypt and Iceland in the year 1874. New York: Putnam, 1874. *Central Asia: travels in Cashmere, Little Tibet, and Central Asia.'' New York: Scribner, Armstrong, 1874. *''Studies in German Literature. New York: Putnam, 1879. *Critical Essays and Literary Notes'' (edited by Marie ansen Taylor). New York: Putnam, 1880. *''A history of Germany: From the earliest times to the present day'' (edited by Marie Hansen Taylor). New York: D. Appleton, 1894. Juvenile *''The Ballad of Abraham Lincoln'' (illustrated by Solomon Eytinge). Boston: Fields, Osgood, 1870. *''Boys of Other Countries: Stories for American boys'' (illustrated). New York: Putnam, 1876. Translated * Faust: A tragedy, translated in the original meters '' Boston: Houghton Osgood, 1878. **New York: Modern Library, 1950. Collected editions *''Prose Writings of Bayard Taylor. New York: Putnam, 1852; revised edition, 1861. Volume II, Volume III, Volume V, Volume VI, Volume VII, Volume VIII. *''The Works of Bayard Taylor''. New York: Putnam, 1882. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV, Volume V, Volume VI, Volume VII. Letters *Marie Hansen Taylor & Horace Elisha Scudder, The Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor. (2 volumes), Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1884; London: Stock, 1884. Volume I, Volume II. *''The Correspondence of Bayard Taylor and Paul Hamilton Hayne'' (edited by Charles Duffy). Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1945. *''Selected Letters of Bayard Taylor'' (edited by Paul C. Wermuth). Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press / London & Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1997. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Bayard Taylor, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Nov. 30, 2013. See also * List of U.S. poets *List of literary critics References * . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 12, 2018. * * * * * Notes External links ;Poems *"Love Returned" at the Academy of American Poets ("Love Returned") *Bayard Taylor at My Poetic Side (profile & 2 poems) *Bayard Taylor at Poetry Archive (3 poems) *James Bayard Taylor at PoemHunter (17 poems) *Bayard Taylor at Poetry Nook (221 poems) ;Books * *Bayard Taylor at Amazon.com ;About *Taylor, Bayard at Pennysylvania Center for the Book . Original article is at " Taylor, Bayard" Category:1825 births Category:1878 deaths Category:American travel writers Category:Holy Land travellers Category:American poets Category:American novelists Category:American literary critics Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Germany Category:People from Chester County, Pennsylvania Category:Lecturers Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Translators to English